Prosperity in Song China (960-1279) | World History | Khan Academy

- [Narrator] In other
videos when we talked about

the various Chinese empires,

we talk about the Song
dynasty in particular

as a time of significant
technological innovation.

And here are just some of the
examples that we talk about,

most notably gunpowder,
movable block print,

you have block printing
emerge during the Tang dynasty

but during the Song
dynasty, it gets perfected

and it becomes more efficient
with movable block print.

You have the compass being perfected,

especially for naval use,
the boats being perfected,

you see this reinvigoration,
really the high point

of the Chinese civil service,

you see the emergence of Neo-Confucianism.

But one question is well what allowed

all of this innovation to take place?

And also what allowed for the
stability of the Song dynasty?

When you look at it on
the timeline like this,

that's covering over 2,000 years,

it might not look that long

but when you actually
think about it this is

over 300 years of dynastic
rule by one dynasty.

Now it is split in the middle
between the Northern Song

and the Southern Song,
that happens in 1127,

we'll talk about that in a little bit.

But for the most part,

it is a very prosperous time for China.

The population actually grows

from roughly 50 million people
during the Tang dynasty,

to, it is estimated, 100 million people by

the Northern Song dynasty
and eventually keeps growing

so that by the time we
get to the Ming dynasty,

we have a population of
about 200 million people.

So what are the things that allows

for that population explosion, really?

Well one thing you can imagine
is food is very important,

and it's during this time period that

the Song dynasty is able
to leverage a more robust

rice seed from Southeast
Asia that allows it

to feed many, many more people.

And so this obviously
allows a population growth,

but any time you're able to feed people,

and there's more prosperity,

you're going to have a more stable empire.

Now another major input into prosperity

and the stability of empires

is the notion of trade.

And China had always many river systems,

which helped facilitate
agriculture and trade.

But as you get into the Sui
dynasty, right over here,

you have the completion
of the Grand Canal,

which is even today the
largest man-made canal.

It stretches from Beijing to
Hangzhou and actually goes

beyond that and has other tributaries

and that connected with
the existing river systems

allowed for a lot of trade to happen,

especially as we get into
the Tang and Song dynasties.

Now the Song dynasty in particular,

you have the pound lock being invented,

which allows for easier
travel across waterways

when you have a change
in the level of water.

The pound lock is still the
standard technology used

in canals throughout the world.

You also have the first
use of paper money.

This is a big deal. We
use paper money today.

Our ability to have
transactions in our society

are not dependent on our ability to mine

for gold or silver or copper.

And one of the things that allowed

for paper money to even be used

was this notion of block printing,

and block printing with
movable type in particular.

Once again, a Song dynasty innovation.

Now as I mentioned, as we get into 1127,

you have conquerors from the
north, in particular the Jin,

who are able to conquer Northern China.

They caused the Song to move their capital

from Kaifeng in the north,

to Hangzhou in the south.

Here you see Hangzhou is
a major southern terminal

of the Grand Canal.

And even though the
Northern Song had to move

and essentially become
the Southern Song dynasty,

you continue to have that prosperity

for roughly another 150
years and once again,

this comes from this meritocracy

from the civil service system.

This abundance of food,
this stability from

having the dynastic rule,
the trade, the money,

all of these technological advances,

which make the Song dynasty
one of the notable periods

of Chinese history.